The Sunday Mail
Ibrahim Assim was about 21 years old when he joined the fishing industry and today, 21 years later, his daily routine is almost the same as it was two decades ago except for one thing – he is now his own master.
Families that reside in fishing camps along the mighty Zambezi River draw raw water from the river for household use
Arriving from Malawi in 1994 soon after completing his secondary education to join the “green and great trek” down south, he soon joined his father in the fishing rigs in and around Kariba.
“My father was already working in the lake, doing kapenta and my entry into the enterprise was not by coincidence but by inspiration,” he chuckled last week as he recollected the two decades that he has been in the waters.
Kapenta is the small fish that has found its fame around the country as an instant meal.
Two and a half years ago, having realised that he was aging and making a mental note he would not die someone’s employee, Assim made a decision.
“It was a decision buttressed by luck as well, because at about the same time that I was thinking of doing my own thing, I met someone who was disposing of his fishing rig on very favourable terms. I did not think twice about the offer, I instantly grabbed it.”
Today the fisherman is not ruing that decision. ln the two years that his business has been running, he has bought another fishing rig and a house for his family. In addition to that, Assim is now an employer to eight people – quite a remarkable transformation.
But all that bliss was before the Zambezi River water levels started going down, consequently taking the Kariba Dam to 480,81 metres above sea level as at the end of July, which is 1,05 percent lower than the level recorded during the same period last year.
“On average, every month we would do about 1 500kg of wet kapenta per boat but as you can see, today we have done less than 20kg. That is how bad the situation has become,” he explained the situation that he and the other fishermen are finding themselves in.
The water levels have been dropping due to the poor rainfall received last season and the fishermen have to contend with lower harvests on the one hand and a depressed market on the other.
“It’s like being caught between a hard place and a rock,” he lamented.
The effects have been compounded by cheaper kapenta imports coming from Mozambique.
“Generally this time of the year our market is depressed because of pressure from Mozambique and it is a cycle that we are conditioned to every year, only that this year it has been compounded by the low water levels in the Zambezi River, which has affected our harvests,” he added.
And on Thursday, as is standard practice every month when the full moon arrives, kapenta fishermen in all the five basins of the Zambezi River went on a seven-day break. Besides this being a legal requirement, the seven-day break is also due to the full moon which makes it difficult for them to catch the fish as they use bright lights to lure the small fish.
“The seven-day break is also meant to allow the kapenta to breed. At least when we come back, they would have replenished their population,” Assim explained.
But whilst Assim and his counterparts at Chalala Fishing Camp might be putting up brave faces in the face of adversity, there is another problem that is beyond them.
Whilst the camp is not one of the most idyllic settings along the shores of Lake Kariba, it is neither the setting nor lack of picturesque-ness that is worrying the 500-or-so residents. It is how to get to the fishing camp that is a major headache, not only for them, but for anyone who might want to do business with the fishing camp.
Assim and most of his counterparts consider Kariba as their home town, but at approximately 50 kilometres away, commuting between Chalala and the tourist town is a nightmare. The journey takes between 12 to 13 hours on the boat. Therefore, these journeys come only once a month when the full moon comes and the fishermen have to travel to Kariba, coming back to Chalala after the week’s break.
In the event of an emergency, a Chalala resident has to go through Siakobvu, Musambakarume, Zvipani, Magunje, Karoi and then to Kariba, a round trip of 400 kilometres. Of those 400 kilometres, the 50 kilometre stretch from Siakobvu to Chalala is the worst nightmare dur to the bad terrain.
“We draw most of our buyers from Gokwe and they are always complaining of this road, our only wish is having it repaired as it is a headache to us and those who wish to come and buy our kapenta,” explained Edward, Ibrahim’s cousin who joined the great trek from Malawi about 15 years ago.
Upstream in Binga, the fishermen share the same problem of accessibility, complaining that they draw their market from Bulawayo, which lies 489 kilometres away. They are only accessible through a rough patch of road that passes through Kamativi.
“The market is depressed everywhere and those are forces that we cannot control. But we are urging authorities to look into how inaccessible our fishing camps are because a lot of economic activity is happening in these fishing communities, supporting the livelihoods of many families. So the Government should take a keen interest in our welfare as we are key to the sustenance of the economy,” said Mr Kennias Chigwagwa, the chairperson of the Chunga Kapenta Fishing Co-operative.
Echoing these sentiments, the chief executive officer of Binga Rural District council, Mr Joshua Muzamba, said the national economy is losing a lot of potential revenue through neglecting the fishing districts
“We could be adding value to our fish right here in Binga, canning and processing fish but given how bad our road infrastructure is, very few investors would be keen to come and set camp here. So our plea is if only central Government could take a cue from the confidence shown by the First Lady in our district when she recently commissioned irrigation equipment. If the same level of confidence is extended to other areas of infrastructural development, especially the road network, then Binga is the town of the future, it has the potential,” he explained.
Mr Chigwagwa pointed out that the fishing communities are not allowed to build permanent structures in their camps, a situation he complained about.
However, the local council’s chief executive had a ready answer for that.
“The fishing camps they operate in are designated as industrial zones, and in some cases as tourism zones and they cannot build residential properties there.
If they are to build any such structures, they should be temporary. But if they are to build any structure related to their work, such as a kapenta processing factory or plant, then they can forward their plans to council for approval.”
But for Colleta Jokonya, her headache lies somewhere else. She, just like many others, drinks water that comes straight from the Zambezi River.
“Here and there we get tablets from the local clinic to treat our water but it is not always.
And we are quite lucky that we have not had any outbreak of diseases given that a lot of things happen in the Zambezi River. All the fishermen who drown and are not found, the animals that are killed by crocodiles in the river – that is the water that we get to drink. It is sure by the grace of God that we are still living,” she said.
